Hundreds of motor finance jobs to go at Lloyds Banking Group

Cuts at Speke and Chester ‘sad but inevitable’ consequence of the integration of Lloyds TSB and HBOS’s operations

Swingeing job cuts at the motor finance business of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) have been announced.

LBG said 200 jobs at Speke and 340 jobs in Chester would be affected, along with “a salesforce and other smaller locations”, a spokesman confirmed.

“This change will result in the loss of 910 full-time jobs which affects 985 full and part-time colleagues over a two-year period,” LBG said.

One motor industry observer described the job losses as a “sad but inevitable” consequence of the integration of Lloyds TSB and HBOS’s operations, following the merger of the banks earlier this year.

The announcement was made after a detailed review of HBOS’s asset and motor finance operations, completed last year, which “concluded that the majority of them were no longer financially viable or core to the business.”

It has subsequently been decided that Black Horse will be the sole brand of LBG’s point-of-sale dealer finance operation, with Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance to disappear from the UK motor finance scene.

LBG will cease to accept new business through Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance from 1 October, a spokesman confirmed.

LBG said that it has worked closely with the unions Unite, Accord and GMB throughout the restructuring process. Natural turnover and redeployment will be used “wherever possible”, LBG said, with 240 employees from the asset finance division already having been transferred to the retail operation at Speke.

All former customers of Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance will be offered the option to transfer their business to Black Horse.

“For all intermediaries within the group’s non-dealer businesses, the group will be offering 30 days to accept new business from retail customers, and a further 60 days to write business currently in the pipeline,” LBG added.

Chris Sutton, managing director of the combined motor and leisure business, said: “This is a significant step forward for the company which underlines our commitment to the industry.

“I am very excited by the prospect of bringing together the UK’s two leading independent finance providers. Between us we have a deep understanding of the industry and know what dealers need to help them through these tough times.

“This move gives us a real opportunity to work even more closely with dealers, cement our already established relationships and help them to maximise their point of sale finance income.

“While there will be some changes as we combine the businesses, for most of our dealers it will be business as usual. Our intention is to bring all our dealers together under the Black Horse brand, using Black Horse systems.”